Breathe
by phan.wyd
Summary: After Link witnesses his mother's death, he is left shell shocked. But an evil rises and he is(once again) forced to go save everyone. Follow his adventures as he tries to discover who he is, fight his way through dungeons, and try to keep all of his personalities in check. This should be fun. AU zelink if you want


**A/N: hey. welcome to my corner of the internet. i don't know what i'm doing, so forgive me if i critically mess things up. also, minor language. inspired by Wavebreeze's _What We Saw From the Outside._**

**DISCLAIMER: don't own the Legend of Zelda. if i did, the new Zelda would have come out this year. ****too soon.**

* * *

Sephanie had been worried for a while now. She hadn't heard from her husband in a couple of weeks. He had promised to write every couple of days but nope. He couldn't be bothered to sooth her troubled soul. She had been planning on just staying at home, enjoying her incredibly mediocre life, but, once again, nope. Everyone in the area was to evacuate to Castletown, because the King feared the fighting would reach her town. But not like she was gonna be hurt. What were the chances?

But she paid heed to their warnings anyways, got separated from the group she was with, and here she is now. Wandering aimlessly in Hyrule Field, carrying her five year old son. He was the reason she decided to leave anyways. He was special. The Triforce on the back of his tiny hand told her so. She was afraid he would get hurt if she stayed behind. She knew she had to protect him, to take him somewhere safe, but where?

_Oh goddesses, am I literally stupid? There is no safe place. and now Link is gonna pay for how stupid I am. Way to go Sephanie. I can't even look at you-_

Of course!

The forest!

Relief flooded her as she realised she could save her son. And there would be space for her and her husband and they would be happy. She turned her horse in the direction of the forest and nudged it into a gallop. She felt movement below her and looked down at Link, who was staring up at her with those big, blue eyes that she just adored.

"Momma, where are we going?" Link asked in a small voice.

"Somewhere safe"

"But _where _is that?"

"You'll see."

"But what if I fall asleep? Then I can't see. And if I can't see then will I be safe?"

She snorted."Hush, child. I know what I'm doing."

Link looked up at her, as if wondering the credibility of that statement.

"But Momma, the last time you said that, you ended up with three-"

"Okay! That's enough! We're going to the forest! Now, go to sleep!" She interrupted, a blush creeping up on her cheeks. She did not need reminding of what happened the last time she said that.

"But I'm not tired…" Link said slowly, as if she would hurt him after he said it.

"Do it. Now."

"But-"

"Go to sleep or Din so help me I will tickle you until you fall asleep!"

Link paled at the thought. He murmured his goodnight even though it was two in the afternoon and drifted off to sleep. Now all she had to do was get to the forest alive. That was easy enough, right?

* * *

"Oh Din, my ass hurts." she murmured. She quickly looked down at Link to see if he heard that. He didn't. She smirked to herself, wondering what her husband would say. Probably something like _stop your goddess damned cursing. I'm not raising a sailor mouth for a child_. Sephanie giggled. Oh, what she wouldn't give to see her husband in all his awkward irony. It wasn't fair that he had been drafted. She scowled. Damned government and their damned laws. Who did the king think he was, forcing an unable-bodied man to go to war? The supreme ruler of all living beings in a section of land?

_Supreme ruler my ass_ Sephanie thought. She felt shifting under her and turned her scowl to Link.

"And just what are you doing awake?" Sephanie asked Link.

Link looked at her uneasily.

"I have a really bad feeling about this. Momma, we have to turn around right now. We can't go into the forest. Please, turn around!" Link said, his voice rising in panic.

Sephanie saw genuine terror Link's eyes and it scared her.

"Link, honey, I'm gonna try to put this as gently as I can. There is no way in the Sacred Realm I am turning this horse around. I know you're worried, but nothing bad is going to happen. It's perfectly normal to be a little afraid." she said softly.

"But I feel it in my got."

"...Your got?"

"Yes."

"Do you mean your gut?"

"...Maybe. But, seriously, we have to go."

Sephanie sighed. She also had a sinking feeling in her gut too, but she was not about to turn around now, oh no sir. If she turned around, she was a wuss. And she was not about to let that happen. Besides, she was only about four miles away. And the fighting was way behind them. She just had to go a little faster to reach the forest. Then, everything would be dandy.

"...Can you go to sleep again?"

"No! I've been sleeping for... forever! If I sleep for one more second I will never be able to sleep again!"

"Okay! Okay, geez! Don't go to sleep then. And that's not even how it works. You're going to have to sleep again at some point. You can't just sleep for a long time now and then never sleep again. Honestly, you have the logic of a five year old. But you are five, so I guess your logic is sound. But compared to me, your-"

Link giggled. "You're rambling!"

"...You're five. How in Hyrule do you know what the word rambling means? Jeez, when I was five all I did was sit around and play tag with the cuccos. In retrospect, that's kinda sad."

"You lead a hard life, Momma."

"Amen! But seriously, when did you get to be s- hey! We're here!"

As soon as she said that, the smile instantly dropped off of Link's face. His eyes widened. She ignored that. They had been the forest for a while, it seemed. The trees were just there, not sparsely scattered but not heavily thrown in where ever there was more than three feet of space. They were just there. Existing. She felt nostalgic for a moment, as it reminded her of where she grew up, before remembering her current situation. She didn't know how far in she should go to be safe. A couple of miles, maybe? She stood for a couple of minutes, deciding what to do next. She didn't think she would get this far. After deciding she should probably move, she nudged her horse forward in a random direction.

They trotted around for a while, and she really enjoyed the scenery. Filtered sunlight fell through the treetops, reaching her in small rivulets of light. The trees stood tall and proud, as if demanding their presence be known. Small, white flowers were visible on all the trees. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the birds chirping, the leaves swaying, the gentle rustling of the water flowing down the stream. It was a very serene place she decided.

Then she felt dread at its finest and purest and it consumed her and she desperately sped her horse up, which wasn't much because of how thick the trees were growing. Something about this place was making her hair stand on end and she did not know what it was. She tried to speed up even more-

But grunted in pain and tumbled off the horse, taking Link with her.

"Momma!"

She slowly turned her head to the right, as if she might catch the arrow buried into her shoulder by surprise and it would fly away like a startled bird. But alas, it did not. Instead, it seemed to burn when she looked at it. Another arrow whizzed by, snapping her out of her trance. Link was in hysterics.

"Momma what's happened? Why are we being attacked? I thought you knew what you were doing! We have to go I'm gonna save you yeah I'm gonna take you back home and kiss away your ouchie and you're gonna be better okay let me carry you-" Link was interrupted by, you guessed it, another arrow flying past, this time close to his head. He screamed and ducked down, covering his head with his arms. Sephanie threw her arms around Link, ignoring the immense pain in her shoulder(seriously it felt as if Demise himself was scratching her shoulder), stood up and ran after her horse, Link screaming for her to stop. But she would not stop. No, not when she was so close. Not when Link was almost safe. Not when her husband had been ripped away from her and forced into battle.

She heard the sound of hooves, stepping on dead leaves and branches, and flinched because the sound was loud. It was so loud. She could not bear how loud it was and present and it was eating away at her very core by how loud it was. Come to think of it, everything was loud. Link's screams, her feet pounding against the floor, her heart, the weird twang noise the bow made every time someone shot an arrow at her, her breathing, the laughter coming from the really freaky pig things riding on whatever the hell was running that fast, her horse's hooves running up ahead, the wind in her ea- her horse's hooves? She looked again and indeed there was her horse, running for dear life. She didn't know if she should try to run faster or tell her horse to slow down or what. She knew she couldn't speed up because the things that were chasing her were gonna speed up too, she would never reach her horse in time, and there was another arrow lodged in her back, and running was starting to get even more painful.

Link screamed again, sobbing that he wanted to go home- he needed to go home. That she had to be okay. That he was gonna die. That they weren't gonna make it. But she wasn't focused on that. She was focused on her stupid horse, running a couple of meters up ahead. Then, her horse looked back and stopped, as if sensing her urgency. The pig things sped past them, barely comprehending that she had stopped running. She threw Link over the saddle, ignoring his indignant cry, and practically flew on herself(maybe she did fly up. She couldn't tell). She nudged her horse westward, and kicked it into a gallop, or as fast as her horse could go, trying to distance herself from the pig things. It seemed to be working, as she couldn't see them. She would just keep on riding. She would keep on riding until she got lost in the Lost Woods.

"Are you okay," Link asked her, sniffling. "Are we going home? Please say we are going home."

She tried to respond, she really did, but instead choked on her own blood. Suddenly, the adrenaline seeped out of her body and she slumped over, feeling exhausted. Instead, she sighed and looked down at Link. He looked horrible. There were small leaves and twigs in his hair from when they fell off the horse. He had plenty of small cuts and bruises all over his beautiful little face. There were tears still running down his cheeks. And he was covered in blood. Whose blood, she didn't know. It was most likely hers, but he was bleeding as well, he had a nasty cut on his forearm. She ran her fingers through his hair and sighed again. That was all she could do, sigh. She shook her head and looked up. And her heart stopped. Standing there, was possibly the biggest man she had ever seen. He was standing 10 yards away. In one hand he held the reigns to his horse, and in the other, he held the biggest sword she had ever seen in her life. And that was all she could see. He wore a cloak that concealed his face. She gulped and moved to turn in another direction, but stopped when he spoke.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

She did it anyways. She liked to think of herself as a badass while she ran away from the scary man. She grinned to herself at that thought but stopped immediately and swerved to the right, nearly colliding with the pig things. They saw her and screamed savagely, spittle flying from their mouths(snouts?) and they pointed their fat fingers at her.

"Get the boy!"

She turned to see that the scary guy had yelled that. She winced at the sight of him and sped up only to be slowed down again as yet another arrow collided with her body. The damned pigs really needed to stop that. This time they barely got her, but they did. She looked down at Link, because he hadn't made a noise, but found him looking up at her in open-mouthed horror. Then he looked down at his arm, which had an arrow sticking out of it. The wound was deep, with bits of dirt in it and it was bleeding horribly. She decided right then and there that she was having bacon for dinner. She turned around, about to give the pigs a piece of her mind, only to find herself face to face with the scary guy. She managed a terrified squeak before he reached out and grabbed her neck, pulling her off of the horse.

Then she couldn't breathe. Ande her entire body hurt. Hell, her entire _life_ hurt. she felt his nails digging into her neck. She opened her eyes to see if Link was alright. And thank Farore he was. He was riding the horse, a good twenty-five feet away. Or was it only five feet? Link looked around wildly for his mother, and when he found her he screamed. Maybe because of the pain or the fear or both or neither. Maybe he just wanted to scream. Nayru knows she wanted to scream. And she did, or tried to, when she saw those stupid pigs shoot at her horse's legs, and watched in horror as the horse fell, taking Link with it. And Link never stopped screaming once.

Then she began to writhe hoping, _praying_, to get out of the man's grip. And it was possible, seeing as he only held her with one arm. He got off his horse and walked slowly towards Link. He stopped ten feet away and put her down. Then he raised his sword and swiftly brought it down on her left arm. Her eyes widened as she _felt _the blood all but gushing out of her poor left arm. She whispered _oh _to herself because she didn't know what else to do and sat there, useless. Then the man laughed and Link screamed and the pigs snorted and she breathed but was she really breathing? Or was Link the one laughing? And the man was snorting and the pigs were breathing but she wasn't screaming. Was she? Yes, she was screaming.

And she saw the man approach Link and raise his sword. Who gasped? Certainly not the pigs. The scary looking guy was ready to kill Link, her _precious_ Link, but didn't. Or couldn't. Or someone(thing?) had stopped him. And she laughed. She laughed until it hurt, which wasn't very long because her body already hurt. She only laughed harder when someone laughed with her because this whole damned thing was so _hilarious_. She knew because her husband was right there, laughing next to her. She heard the scary guy mumble something but didn't pay it much attention because this was too funny. And then Link collapsed, poor soul, and the pigs and the man left and she and her husband laughed. But then she stopped.

Breathing, that is.


End file.
